Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
The Doctrine of Authority. Part 2.
Wednesday, September 17, 2003
Point 1. Authority and Human Volition.
Point 2. The Realms of Authority.
God has delegated authority through His mandates in both the Old Testament and the New, DEU 11:27; 1SA 15:22; JER 11:4,7; ZEC 6:15.
God also has authority over nature, and nature obeys God, MAT 8:27; MAR 4:41; LUK 8:25; ROM 8:20-22.
Angels are subject to divine authority,
MAR 1:27; 1PE 3:22.
The pastor-teacher and church officers have authority over the congregation in the local church, 1CO 16:15-16;
2CO 10:8; 1TH 5:12;
HEB 13:7, 17; ISA 54:17.
Government has authority over its people to protect the sanctity of their freedom, property, and human life.
The husband has authority over the wife.
The husband’s authority over his wife provides great happiness in category two love,
EPH 5:22; COL 3:18.
Authority is so vital and important that in 1CO 11:10, dealing with the angelic conflict, angels observe the attitude that the woman has toward her husband and the symbol of authority that it represents.
The Greek word is not the normal word for man which is anthropos but aner = a noble man.
A recognition of the authority of Christ means recognition of the authority of the right man.
If it is the wrong man, a woman who recognizes the authority of Christ, recognizes the authority of her husband.
EPH 5:22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
COL 3:18 Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
The authority of the Father over the Son refers to Jesus Christ in hypostatic union (the God-Man) during His incarnation.
“Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will [the will of Jesus Christ in His humanity], but Thine [the sovereignty of God the Father] be done,” LUK 22:42.
The whole system of perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine and the resultant soul structure or edification complex is a reflection of the glory of God.
When man is the glory of God it is because man has an edification complex in the soul.
Man has self-consciousness, God has self-consciousness.
Man has mentality, God has infinite mentality.
Man has volition, God has sovereignty. –
Man has emotion and appreciation, God has appreciation.
Man has norms and standards, God has norms and standards.
When the right woman is fulfilled by the right man, then the woman reflects the glory of the man.
She has apertures in the soul and he fulfills her soul and he fulfills her body and she becomes his glory.
“Glory” = the right woman both as a responder to her right man and as an illustration of God’s grace.
Glory – doxa – “the woman is the glory of the man” = what takes place when a man possesses his right woman or someone who reflects perfectly what he is.
As the moon represents a satellite of the sun and a reflector of light, it is analogous to a man possessing his right woman or someone who reflects perfectly what he is.
GEN 2:18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper [ezer – someone to aid, help, and respond to the man] suitable for him.”
JER 31:22 “How long will you go here and there, O faithless daughter? For the Lord has created a new thing in the earth – A woman will encompass a man.”
Will encompass – cabab = to revolve around, to surround, to walk round about, be about on every side, to encircle, to change direction.
NIV –
JER 31:22 “The LORD will create a new thing on earth – a woman will surround a man.”
In the spiritual realm – she revolves around his personal sense of destiny and becomes a helper suitable for him as he fulfills that destiny.
She changes her direction, her course, her goals, for him!
The greatest form of human happiness for a woman is to be fulfilled by her right man, and the greatest in human happiness for a man is to be completed by his right woman.
The human race fell when the first woman had a conversation with an angel called Lucifer.
In the antediluvian civilization, the civilization was destroyed because women rejected the plan of God and became victims of the fallen angels.
The fallen angels do not want the man and the woman to be restored to the original design of God.
The right man and right woman are totally dependent upon each other.
“In the Lord” – it has to be the Lord’s design.
One way or another society gets out of kilter when women, who are very vital to society, get away from discipline and authority.
One of the greatest blessings in the original blessings of life is when God gave man the woman and a woman is designed to be a blessing.
The next realm of authority has to do with parents having authority over the children,
EPH 6:1; COL 3:20.
Those who are negative toward the authority of their parents become a vessel of dishonor, whether believer or unbeliever. Those who respond begin to shape up as a vessel of honor.
EXO 20:12 Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
God has invented authority as the environment of freedom for the function of human volition.
The first responsibility of the child in the home is obedience to the authority and commands of the parents, whether they seem to be reasonable or unreasonable.
Authority is the key to freedom, humility and honor.
Freedom without authority is chaos; authority without freedom is oppression.
Freedom without authority is anarchy; authority without freedom is tyranny.
Freedom is designed for adults.
Freedom was never designed for children.
In the rearing of the child in the home, freedom is given gradually as trust and virtue builds.
The home is the system of organized humility; the parents are the authority designed to provide enforced humility.
There are a lot of things a child must be taught: vocabulary, language, how to think with words, sentences and paragraphs.
Sparing the rod is why so many children have had such a terrible start in life, managing to bypass the first system of authority.